The toll in the hooch tragedy in Bihar’s East Champaran district jumped to 22 after eight more deaths were reported on Sunday from different health facilities even as the district administration suspended 11 police personnel in the aftermath of the incident, police said, adding, so far, 25 people have been arrested in this connection.
Earlier, 14 people had died after allegedly consuming spurious liquor on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, police said.
Confirming the development, deputy inspector general (Champaran range) Jayant Kant said: “The death toll has risen to 22 and 29 people are still undergoing treatment after allegedly consuming spurious liquor. 15 of them are under treatment at Sadar Hospital in Motihari, while 14 are in private hospitals. The condition of five patients is stated to be serious.”
Sharing information about the arrests, DIG Kant said: “More than 25 people have been arrested in connection with the case.”
Police identified the deceased as Ashok Kumar Paswan, Chotu Paswan, Rameshwar Ram, Dhruv Paswan, Jokhu Singh, Manohar Rai, Dhruv Yadav, Abhishek Yadav, Tuntun Singh, Bhutan Majhi, Sudheesh Ram, Indrasan Mahato, Ajay Paswan and Chote Lal Majhi. The identity of other deceased persons is being ascertained, said police.
In a related development, East Champaran superintendent of police Kantesh Kumar Mishra on Sunday suspended 11 police personnel, including a sub-inspector and an assistant sub-inspector of the anti-liquor task force (ALTF) and nine chowkidars over negligence in duty.
The suspended have been identified as sub-inspector Shivji Singh and assistant sub-inspector Umesh Pathak, said officials familiar with the matter.
The others who faced action are Turkaulia block’s Ajay Kumar Yadav, Raghunathpur block’s Suresh Kumar Yadav, Harsiddhi’s Nagendra Rai, Sukdev Raut and Vinod Das.
Chowkidar Ashok Kumar Paswan of Paharpur, Vanshi Yadav (Paharpur ), Indal Rai of Sugauli, and Arvind Kumar (Sagauli) were also suspended, said the officials.
“Apart from the suspensions, explanations have been sought from five station house officers (SHOs) of four police stations namely Sagauli, Paharpur, Harshidih, Raghunathpur OP(police outpost) and Turkaulia,” said SP Mishra.
“The cases were reported from four blocks of the district, including Paharpur, Sagauli, Harshidih and Turkauliya,” Mishra had said earlier.
“Cases have been registered with five separate police stations,” said SP Kantesh Kumar Mishra. Other officials said these cases were registered under sections 304 and 308 sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The deaths triggered a political slugfest with the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Kumar Sinha hitting out at chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Calling the incident a “ different kind of carnage”, Sinha said the chief minister should take moral responsibility for it.
“It is carnage due to the inability of the administration to check spurious liquor from reaching the people. During the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s regime, Bihar was infamous for massacres. Now, it is a different kind of carnage, and chief minister Nitish Kumar should take moral responsibility for this,” he said.
“The kin of the victims should be given compensation, as it was not their fault. It is the failure of the administration,” said Sinha, who visited a few victim families in East Champaran.
Hindustani Awam Morcha founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, whose party is an ally of the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, demanded an all-party meeting to discuss the future course of prohibition, as deaths were “consistently taking place”.
“I have been saying it needs to be reviewed as spurious liquor is still reaching the people. Bihar’s anti-liquor law has been a major challenge for the government from day one,” he added.
The sale and consumption of alcohol were banned in the state by the chief minister Nitish Kumar-led government under Bihar’s Excise Act, in April 2016.
Defending the prohibition, CM Kumar said that some “unscrupulous elements” were doing wrong things to make money, and the state has been largely successful in keeping a check on such cases.
“The hooch tragedies taking place in states without prohibition is a bigger crime. We have been largely successful in prohibition, however, nobody can claim it can be 100%, as there are always some unscrupulous elements (who are) into making money at the cost of human lives,” he said while talking to reporters on Sunday.
Meanwhile, grief shrouded the residents of Laxmipur village in Turkauliya block, located about 14 km from Motihari, headquarters of East Champaran district, from where four deaths were reported due to the alleged consumption of the spurious liquor.
Laxmipur village resident Ashok Paswan’s mother-in-law Sona Devi has been inconsolable since the news of his death broke. “God knows how will my daughter sustain herself. She has three children, all daughters, and there is no other source of living,” said Devi.
However, one of Paswan’s relatives lamented that he was a habitual drinker and returned home after consuming liquor on Friday.
“His condition deteriorated in the middle of the night as he started vomiting and later on collapsed while he was being taken to hospital in Motihari,” said the relative, declining to be identified.
Meanwhile, East Champaran police arrested 60 people involved in the sale and trade of liquor during raids at 400 locations across the district between Saturday and Sunday.